A numerical investigation of Nusselt number and friction coefficient in an arc-type Stirling engine heater

The usages of stirling engine in many industry such as aerospace, submarines and combined heat and power systems, requires more and detailed analysis in such engines. This type of engine is an external combustion which may use almost any type of fuel. In this article the Nusselt number and friction coefficient of a Stirling engine heat exchanger is investigated numerically. The geometry of this heat exchanger is an arc shape pipe with reciprocating flow. Various parameters such as angular frequencies, type of fluids, working gas pressures, flow regime and heater geometry impact on the Nusselt number and friction coefficient of the heater were investigated. By increasing the angular frequency and the working gas pressure the Nusselt number increases but the friction coefficient decreases. The influences of different working fluids indicated that the Carbon dioxide has the highest Nusselt number. The results also show that the friction coefficient is highly dependent on the flow regime. The comparison between the two different geometry type heaters show that the arc-type geometry led to higher Nusselt number. The friction coefficients of both geometries are almost similar to each other at high frequencies.